A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that my church has some new digs. I am excited to say that we are no longer a portable church and we are living in our "new to us" facility at 309 N. Main Street in Royal Oak.
Genesis the Church started back in 1997 as a young and hip ministry at
Kensington Community Church. By late 1998 we were challenged to plant a church in
Royal Oak, a lovely bedroom community with and extremely active and vibrant downtown. 40 of us moved to Royal Oak and started a church. What were we thinking? 20 year olds running a church? Who knew?
Royal Oak attracted and still attracts a huge variety of people to its hip, funky, and fun downtown eateries, bars, and social hot spots. I really love my town. Anyhow, in 1999 we officially launched and we have had our services in many locations including a middle school cafetorium, 3 different high school auditoriums, a middle/elementary school gym, a black box theater, a comedy club, and
Royal Oak's Music Theater. The latest location we were at for 2 years was
Berkley High School where I work. We had a great relationship with the high school and the custodial staff was seriously sad when we left. They really were 'for us' which is a testament to God's power to use personal relationship's to make a path in the desert. In other words a church had a great relationship with a public school. Imagine That?!
Several years ago we had a building campaign called Epicenter in order to raise fund for a building. Our mortar team searched high and low and examined truly "out of the box" of normal options for us to find a permanent location. Properties in Royal Oak are extremely expensive in the downtown area and it felt like it was next to impossible. Perhaps God designed us to be portable? But God was working in the undercurrent. We had to wait and trust. Two years ago, we needed to find some space for some of our groups to meet for a 12-step program and the First Baptist Church of Royal Oak was ready and willing to let the group meet at their church building. The FBCRO was a church that was celebrating their 170th anniversary. They would be having the celebration at their church on Main Street in downtown Royal Oak - where their historical marker lies. Our church staff started meeting with their pastor, Dave Nickels, and as their relationship grew they realized that they both led churches who wanted to do the exact same thing in Royal Oak: make Jesus known, live in community that disciples each other toward richer and deep relationship with Jesus, and be a people who were the hands and feet of Jesus to those who many would turn their noses down upon. Soon after, our offices moved into FBCRO because of our expanding need for space. Finally, we could see that God was moving these two congregations together with the same heart. We had the same charge from God - we looked different though. First Baptist was a traditional community with a traditional building and strong core of people who had been members for more years than most of us cood imagine. One dear lady was a member for over 80 years. She is 96 years old. On the other hand Genesis the church was a non-traditional community with 2 trailers which could move anywhere to set up church. Genesites on average were about 33 years old and had growing families. We couldn't look any more different but our hearts sang the same tune.
Since the time that Pastor Dave announced that he would be retiring from his official position at FBCRO so that he could be a pastor - without the administrative responsiblities. His official retirement would take place at the end of 2009. In his last year of adminsitrative responsiblities, he and the Genesis Staff did something that most people were and still are highly skeptical of - they joined two churches under one name. As of January 1st, 2010, there is now one church meeting at 309 N. Main Street. The legal name is Genesis the Church formerly known at First Baptist Church of Royal Oak. Most will know us as Genesis the Church - we now have 180 years behind us! We know there will be many challenges for us in the future - but where we see mountains - God sees wide open avenues.
I had the pleasure of leading worship our first service on January 3rd. It was a thrill - a mix of what I would called ancient and modern words that glorify God. Our set list was All Creatures of Our God and King, Dwell, Enter This Temple, Not To Us, and Glorious. The church was packed - even the balcony. But more importantly, our congregation was EXCITED - THRILLED - at the opportunity to walk together shoulder-to-shoulder striving toward God's purposes - doing His work - we hope for at least another 180 years. I am confident in this - for He who began a good work - will be faithful to complete.
And now onto the Fa La La La La La
In the midst of the holidays and moving into our new church the worship leaders, including myself, have been writing new worship music that we will record on January 29th. We are really excited - tired - but excited. We have been rehearsing late into the night. Last night we recorded our demos for the sound engineer.
Here is a link to those songs. You will have to select the
iDisk Public Folder (Graphite) and then
open up the Folder that says 1-15-2010. They are RAW which means there is no editing and no mixing - so they might sound a little bit off at this point - but they will at least give you a glimpse of what will come on the CD. I wrote and am singing lead vocals on "Cry Out of Romans," I'll also sing background vocals on We Are Ready and Glory. I can't wait until the final CD is finished and I can give you a copy! Thanks for letting me catch you up on the latest. Love T
